Posts Tagged ‘prime minister’

The conservative government of Antonis Samaras claims to be cracking down on “extremism”. But what skeletons does the Prime Minister hide in his closet?

The Greek Prime Minister, Mr Samaras, is currently visiting the USA. He arrived here in the immediate aftermath of the arrest of the leadership of Golden Dawn, the notorious Greek neo-Nazi party. But what skeletons does Mr Samaras have in his closet?

Mr Samaras’ speech on October 2 at the Peterson Institute in Washington, DC gives us a first answer to that question. There, the Prime Minister claimed that his government crushes extremism, he talked about the leadership of Golden Dawn which had been, at that time, driven to jail. However, later during the Q&A session he also added that his government was not quite done; that he would also deal with the other extreme, the one that talks of leaving the EU and NATO — directly implying the Left opposition.

His statements pose at least three issues. One, Mr Samaras makes clear that his government had accepted the illegal activity of Golden Dawn so far, or that it did not have the will to deal with it. Two, he admits that the government intervenes in the system of justice which supposedly is independent. Three, he promotes once again his plan to crush the Left opposition which disagrees with his government and which protests in public.

The incident that triggered the arrests of Golden Dawn’s most prominent members was the assassination of the antifascist musician Pavlos Fyssas in Nikaia, Athens. Fyssas was the first Greek to be killed by Golden Dawn since the group launched its violent campaign against migrants and — to a lesser extent — against antifascists in 2009. Read the rest of this entry »